Part 16

BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

NOTE A. THE “CONEYGAR” AND “LODGE FARM,” p. 11.

It is one of the pleasing characteristics of an old and highly civilized country, that appropriate local names for the smaller hamlets, farms, and single rural dwellings, are in general and familiar use. Every thing which gives to the household home, whether of rich or poor, a pleasant distinctive character, an additional hold on the memory and the affections of its inmates, must always prove a merit; and many, assuredly, have been the instances in which the familiar name of the family roof has continued through life a hallowed sound to the wanderers of the household band it once sheltered. In England, this custom—so natural, so kindly, when undisturbed by pretension—is very general, and it is almost needless to say that wherever these names go back for half a century or more, they are always appropriate, and often peculiar, or it may be, interesting from historical or other associations. In very many instances, not only do the farm-house and the cottage bear suitable names, but even the different fields about them are all marked in the same way; this meadow, that grain-field, yonder copse, the knoll beyond, shall each be called by some simple term, familiar to the household of the farmer of the present day, as it was perhaps to his forefathers of past generations.

NOTE B. THE POTATO, p. 30.

It has been clearly ascertained that the potato is indigenous to South America. Mr. Darwin, in his “Journal of Researches,” speaking of the Chonos Archipelago, on the coast of Chili, writes as follows:

“The wild potato grows on these islands in great abundance, in the sandy, shelly soil, near the sea beach. The tallest plant was four feet in height. The tubers were generally small, but I found one, of an oval shape, two inches in diameter; they resembled, in every respect, and had the same smell as English potatoes; but when boiled they shrunk much, and were watery and insipid, without any bitter taste. They were undoubtedly indigenous here: they grow as far south, according to Mr. Low, as lat. 50°, and are called Aquinas by the wild Indians of that part; the Chilotan Indians have a different name for them. Professor Henslow, who has examined the dried specimens which I brought home, says they are the same with those described by Mr. Sabine, from Valparaiso, but that they form a variety, which by some botanists has been considered specifically distinct. It is remarkable that the same plant should be found on the sterile mountains of central Chili, where a drop of rain does not fall for more than six months, and within the damp forests of these southern islands.” Darwin’s “Journal of Researches,” Vol. II. p. 23, American edition.

NOTE C. THE WYCH ELM, (Ulmus Montana,) p. 46.

The following account of the wych elm is given by Mr. Downing in his “Landscape Gardening:”

“The Scotch, or wych elm, (ulmus montana.) This is a tree of lower stature than the common European elm, its average height being about forty feet. The leaves are broad, rough, pointed, and the branches extend more horizontally, drooping at the extremities. The bark on the branches is comparatively smooth. It is a grand tree, ‘the head is so finely massed, and yet so well broken, as to render it one of the noblest of park trees; and where it grows wild amid the rocky scenery of its native Scotland, there is no tree which assumes so great, or so pleasing a variety of character.’ In general appearance the Scotch elm considerably resembles our white elm. Its most ornamental varieties are the spiry-topped elm, (U. m. fastigiata,) with singularly twisted leaves, and a very upright growth; the weeping Scotch elm, (u. m. pendula,) a very remarkable variety, the branches of which droop in a fan-like manner; and the smooth-leaved Scotch elm, (u. m. glabra.)”

NOTE D. THE CARPENTER BEE, (Megachile Centuncularis,) p. 53.

The term carpenter bee is now usually confined, in England, to those insects of the bee tribe which chisel out or rasp their nests in posts, or palings, &c. Their cells “consist of a tunnel excavated in the wood, and divided by thin partitions of clay into five or six compartments, each with its supply of pollen for the single inhabitant who is to emerge from the egg deposited therein.”

The bee referred to by Mr. Knapp, page 53, although inhabiting, at times, a wooden cell also, like the true “carpenter,” is more generally classed with the “upholsterer bees,” or those which line their nests with cuttings from leaves, and flowers. This leaf-cutter bee is thus alluded to in “Acheta Domestica:”

“Having excavated, or found her hole, (a cavity in ground, or wood, or wall, from six to ten inches deep,) she proceeds to construct within it, of the pieces of the leaf she cuts off, several cells, of the shape and about the size of a thimble, which she inserts successively, the bottom of one into the mouth of that below it. It takes from nine to twelve pieces of leaf to complete each cell, and as each is finished she stores it with a rose-colored conserve made chiefly of pollen and honey, collected from the flowers of the thistle. When to this magazine of sweets is superadded the egg from whence its future consumer is to spring, the provident provider of the store covers in the whole with three more pieces of leaf, cut in a circle, as truly accurate as compasses could describe. Room being left above the cover for the insertion of a succeeding cell, our “upholsterer” thus proceeds till her nursery tunnel is completely filled up.”

* * * “The leaves employed by the leaf-cutter, are materials of somewhat stubborn texture, those sometimes of the mountain ash, and birch, as well as the rose, herein enhancing the skill of their employer. It would seem, however, that pliability and thinness are qualities somewhat regarded, and most wonderfully discerned by the little artist in question; for we have noticed in more than one summer, the smooth, delicate, tender leaves of a dark variety of China rose, almost scolloped by the circles and ovals of her excision, while the foliage of the “cabbage” close by, has been left untouched, as if too coarse and common for her purpose.”—Acheta Domestica.

Reaumur relates that a gardener at Rouen, once chancing to dig up the nest of a leaf-cutter bee, was so utterly amazed with the singular skill of the contrivance that he was terrified, and hastened with it to the priest of the parish, believing it to be nothing less than the work of witchcraft. Monsieur le Curé, it appears, had something of the same suspicions; he advised the man to carry the nest to Paris; the gardener, however, took it first to a distinguished Naturalist living at Rouen, who relieved the poor fellow’s mind by opening one of the cases and showing him the grub within.

We learn that there are several leaf-cutting or upholsterer bees, in the United States, although it is not probable that either is precisely similar to that alluded to by Mr. Knapp, and the author of Acheta Domestica.

NOTE E. THE ROSE-BEETLE, (Cetonia Aurata,) p. 53.

The Rose-Chafer, or Rose-Beetle, the Cetonia aurata of entomologists, is a beautiful insect, very common in England but unknown in our own country. “On the back of the corslet burnished green and gold are the prevailing hues, on breast-plate, cuisse, and gauntlet the lustre of the precious metal is predominant, mingled with changeable reflections of purplish crimson,” says the writer of Acheta Domestica. “Like the rest of its tribe, this pretty beetle undergoes the usual triple metamorphosis of insect life. From an egg laid within the earth, he emerges a grub or larva, to feed on roots, most usually those of the rose. * * Thus, hermit-like, and upon this hermit’s fare, he lives in dark seclusion for four years, and when these are over, constructs for himself, about the month of March, a still more straitened cell—an earth-formed case, resembling a pigeon’s egg. He proceeds, under its cover, to the second stage of pupa—from thence to the third and last estate; and after remaining another fortnight under ground, for his enameled mail to acquire hardness, comes forth in all his splendor to meet the roses. The antennæ are of curious and very elegant formation. They each terminate in a knob composed of several laminæ or plates, opening or shutting like the leaves of a book, and which also like a book, can be put away at the pleasure of their insect owner, on a shelf or deep cavity on either side its head. They are always thus put carefully away when the chafer is inactive, or asleep. It has been noticed as a singular fact that the rose-beetle has been found not unfrequently, while in its two first stages, the tenant of an ant-hill, and that without being attacked by its carnivorous inhabitants. It is hence called, in some countries, “king of the ants;” and it is said also that German cattle dealers invest it with supernatural powers, and feed it carefully in beds as a means of insuring prosperity to their herds and fortunes.”—Acheta Domestica, second series, p. 72, English edition.

The true rose-chafer has not been found among our American beetles.

NOTE F. DYER’S BROOM, (Genista Tinctoria) p. 58.

There are many species of Broom in the old world. The common Broom of England has large, yellow, butterfly-shaped blossoms, and growing, as it does, in large patches on waste lands, produces a vary brilliant effect when in bloom. But it is also very useful in its way. The twigs were probably the first besoms of the housewives of old, in days when witches were believed to ride on broom-sticks to their gatherings; certain it is, at least, that our brooms of the present hour derive their name from the early use of the twigs of the plant for similar purposes.

Cordage, matting, and even coarse cloth have been made of the fibres of the Broom. Houses are sometimes thatched with the twigs, which have been also used for tanning instead of oak bark.

It was a sprig of the Broom or Genet, as it is called in French, worn in the helmet of a count of Anjou, of olden time, which became at length a family badge, and gave the name of Plantagenet to the race of English kings, who for three centuries reigned over our forefathers.

Dyer’s Broom, woad-waxen, genista tinctoria, has become naturalized here and there in some parts of New York and New England.

NOTE G. THE DESTRUCTION OF INSECTS BY PLANTS, p. 62.

That singular American plant the sarracenia, pitcher-plant, hunters-cup, or side-saddle flower, as it is variously called, is a striking instance of the peculiarity referred to in the text, by Mr. Knapp. It is well known to all who are familiar with our native plants, that the hollow leaves of the sarracenia are generally found to contain more or less water, with dead insects of various tribes which have been drowned in the liquid. One might have supposed that this was purely accidental, but it is not impossible that the plant may require for its sustenance a certain amount of animal nourishment. The experiment of an English gardener would lead one to believe that such is the case; taking a hint from the drowned flies usually found in the hollow leaves of the pitcher-plant he tried a singular experiment; he fed the vegetable on beef-steak, small pieces of the beef being laid within the hollow leaves. The superior beauty and size of the particular plant treated in this way, subsequently proved that the surmise was correct, and that the pitcher-plant is to a certain degree, carnivorous. Such may very possibly be the case with other flowers which are known to entrap insects of different kinds; they may need these as nourishment. Generally speaking, it is the blossom and not, as in the instance of the Sarracenia, the leaf which allures the insect and thus destroys it; in this sense the hunter’s-cup is more ogre-like than most of its companions possessing the same dangerous power, since it is not only during the season of flowering, but throughout the summer that unwary flies and gnats are drowned in its leafy reservoirs.

NOTE H. THE IVY, (Hedera Helix,) p. 64.

The Ivy is found throughout most of the countries of Europe, and also in parts of Asia and Africa. It was one of the sacred plants of the old Egyptians, and held the same character among the Greeks also. In our own western hemisphere the Ivy was unknown until introduced by the colonists from Europe; nor does it seem likely ever to become, like so many other contributions of the old countries, naturalized here; our dryer summers or colder winters, do not apparently agree with it. Possessing one qualification rare among climbing plants, that of being an evergreen, it may, on this account, be considered as the finest of the purely ornamental vines of temperate regions. It is believed to live to a very great age, as the parent stems of vines still attached to buildings some centuries old, are found nearly as large as the trunks of good-sized forest trees.